Significant attention to palliative care in terminally ill patients has only been effective in Brazil since the year 2000, although there have been isolated actions since the 1980s. When the case involves fetuses or neonates unable to cure,…
Background: Research remains inconclusive regarding the impact of specialist pediatric palliative care (SPPC) on health care utilization and cost. Objective: To better understand and quantify the impact of regional SPPC services on children's health…
Pediatric palliative care (PPC) is a set of actions aimed at children who suffer from a severe or life-threatening disease to alleviate the symptoms of the disease and improve the quality of life of both the child and his/her family. One of the tools…
Legacy building interventions like plaster hand molds are offered in most children's hospitals, yet little is known about how the concept of legacy is understood and described by pediatric health care providers. Therefore, this study explored…
Background: Community health workers (CHWs) are currently deployed in improving access to palliative care in a limited number of low-income or middle-income countries (LMICs). This review therefore aimed to document evidence from LMICs regarding (1)…
Drawing upon transformative service research and social tourism literature, this paper explores the relationship between respite care and childhood illness. It focuses specifically upon the short break opportunities attached to respite care offered…
Background: Population trends of disease prevalence and incidence over time measure burden of disease and inform healthcare planning. Neuromuscular disorders (NMD) affect muscle and nerve function with varying degrees of severity and disease…
Purpose: The Quality of Care Collaborative Australia (QuoCCA) provided pediatric palliative care education across Australia with the aim of improving the quality of services. The education was delivered through a collaboration of six tertiary…
INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: To identify the knowledge of caregivers of pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) on the French law related to patients' rights and end of life, their views on withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WWLST)…
In the GRADE approach, the strength of a recommendation reflects the extent to which we can be confident that the composite desirable effects of a management strategy outweigh the composite undesirable effects. This article addresses GRADE's approach…
Palliative care is the interdisciplinary specialty that aims to relieve suffering and improve the quality of care for patients with serious illness and their families. Although palliative care programs are becoming increasingly prevalent in U.S.…
BACKGROUND: While developing and distributing clinical practice guidelines are important in optimising clinical healthcare, insight into actual care is necessary to achieve successful implementation. Developing quality indicators may be the first…
OBJECTIVE: To develop a practical set of measures for routine monitoring, performance feedback, and improvement in the quality of palliative care in the intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN: Use of an interdisciplinary iterative process to create a…
Child and family involvement is key to improving the quality of children's hospice services. This article reports on a quality assurance initiative undertaken as one component of a clinical governance strategy. Service users participated in focus…
The Paediatric Pain Profile is a tool that has been developed specially to help in assessing and monitoring pain in children with severe neurological impairments, especially those with impairments which lead them to be unable to communicate pain…
As the goals of palliative cancer treatments have not always been clearly specified, this paper describes how frequently the goals of palliative cancer treatment can be specified according to a given definition and how frequently those specified…
User involvement has become a central tenet of government policy regarding health and social care. Likewise, the role of 'evidence' is seen as being at the heart of effective planning and delivery of health services. (Our Healthier Nation, 1999).…
OBJECTIVES: To compare pediatric intensive care unit (ICU) mortality risk using models from two distinct time periods; and to discuss the implications of changing mortality risk for severity systems and quality-of-care assessment. DATA SOURCES AND…
Changes in health and illness of individuals create a process of transition, and clients in transition tend to be more vulnerable to risks that may in turn affect their health. Uncovering these risks may be enhanced by understanding the transition…
This study reports the process and results of a psychometric evaluation of a clinical audit tool, the Support Team Assessment Schedule (STAS), used to measure outcomes of palliative care. The STAS was developed in London, UK to audit community…
We report a prospective study assessing the prevalence and severity of physical and nonphysical symptoms, and the benefits from treatment and intervention, in advanced cancer patients presenting to a local palliative care unit in Hong Kong. Patients…
Introduction: In certain patients, "directives on the adequacy of therapeutic effort" (DAET) known as advanced care planning are important tools to align medical care to patient's and family's objectives of care. Purpose: To describe characteristics…
Families who have a child diagnosed with a life-limiting illness (LLI) face substantial challenges resulting from the complexity and devastating impact of the condition and potential closeness of death. The experiences of fathers of a child with LLI…
